In Patent Documents 1 to 3, respectively, there is disclosed a linear motor for producing thrust to cause a relative horizontal movement to occur between a permanent magnet of a mover and an armature.
In these Patent Documents 1 to 3, there is described a linear motor including an armature made up of magnetic poles and windings, and a mover having the permanent magnet, the mover being relatively movable against the armature, in the horizontal direction, wherein magnetic pole teeth with the magnetic pole disposed on both sides of the permanent magnet via an air gap such that the magnetic pole teeth oppose each other, and a magnetic material for linking the magnetic pole teeth together are provided, a plurality of pieces of the magnetic poles are provided in the traveling direction of the mover, magnetic fluxes generated by the windings disposed on the armature are identical in polarity at the plural pieces of the magnetic poles, the plural pieces of the magnetic pole teeth disposed so as to oppose each other are individually configured, and in addition, a distance between the magnetic pole teeth is variable for every magnetic pole teeth disposed so as to oppose each other.